Thursday, February 01, 2007

“This resolution is a resolution of defeat and disgrace,” said Sen. Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican who, as a member of the House, voted in 2002 for the war. “There’s no other way it could come out,” Mr. DeMint said of the two resolutions that have been authored. “That is the choice that they’re making. That is the decision they’re making because we know if we withdraw and leave this to the Iraqis when they’re not ready, that we will lose all.”

It appears as though Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s coming out against the Hagel-Biden resolution on Face the Nation has stemmed the Republican tide. The American people will take note of that when they vote next. They will have seen that Republicans stood on principle when it would’ve been easy to cave. They’ll also know that the Democrats will have chosen expediency over victory. I can’t picture that as a winning position to take in 08.

Sen. John Cornyn, (R-TX), was not serving in the Senate for the vote authorizing the war but has been an ardent defender of it. He said Congress is sending mixed messages to the troops, to voters and to the world with a “no confidence” vote that carries no force. “We can’t claim to support the troops and not support their mission,” he said in a floor speech yesterday. “If we don’t support the mission, we shouldn’t be passing nonbinding resolutions. We should be doing everything in our power to stop it.”Instead, Mr. Cornyn said, “we should send them the message that, yes, we believe you can succeed and it’s important to our national security that you do.” He has been drawing up a resolution to do that.

That’s the only logical, defensible position to take. To vote for the Biden-Hagel resolution is declaring yourself as a defeatist. Voting for Biden-Hagel is declaring that the US military can’t defeat the terrorists anywhere. That’s some message to send to American troops serving in harm’s way.

“That’s just nonsense,” said Sen. Tom Harkin, (D-IA), who voted for the war in 2002. “What undermines the troops is keeping them fighting in a civil war, to keep them fighting for a mistake.”

Sen. Harkin is a disgrace and an idiot. He’s a political opportunist who doesn’t believe in the U.S. military’s ability to win wars. That’s a difficult position to hold in light of our military record in wars. The only war we lost is Vietnam. That war wouldn’t have been lost if the counterculture hadn’t split this country like it’s doing today.

“One thing I don’t like is when people back home say they support the troops but not the war,” one soldier interviewed said. “If they’re going to support us, support us all the way.” Spc. Tyler Johnson said, “You’re not supporting what they do. They died for you. It don’t make sense to me.”

Democrats have said that they support the troops thousands of times by now but by what do they measure their support? Have they prayed for the soldiers? Have they praised them for the victories in battle that they’ve won? Have they recognized the intelligence, perseverance and courage that they’ve shown? Here’s how the Washington Post’s William Arkin responded to Spc. Johnson:

“These soldiers should be grateful that the American public … do still offer their support to them, and their respect,” wrote Mr. Arkin. “Through every Abu Ghraib and Haditha, through every rape and murder, the American public has indulged those in uniform, accepting that the incidents were the product of bad apples or even of some administration or command order.” The NBC report “is just an ugly reminder of the price we pay for a mercenary; oops sorry, volunteer; force that thinks it is doing the dirty work,” he added.

Let’s hope that the Washington Post fires this jackass before noon Thursday. If they won’t rein in their anti-war haters, then they should expect their circulation to drop precipitously. If they tolerate that type of behavior, they’ll deserve to lose credibility and readership.

“Yes sir my name is Mark Seavey and I just want to thank you for coming up here. Until about a month ago I was Sgt Mark Seavey infantry squad leader, I returned from Afghanistan. My question to you, (applause)“Like yourself I dropped out of college two years ago to volunteer to go to Afghanistan, and I went and I came back. If I didn’t have a herniated disk now I would volunteer to go to Iraq in a second with my troops, three of which have already volunteered to go to Iraq. I keep hearing you say how you talk to the troops and the troops are demoralized, and I really resent that characterization. (applause) The morale of the troops that I talk to is phenomenal, which is why my troops are volunteering to go back, despite the hardships they had to endure in Afghanistan.“And Congressman Moran, 200 of your constituents just returned from Afghanistan. We never got a letter from you; we never got a visit from you. You didn’t come to our homecoming. The only thing we got from any of our elected officials was one letter from the governor of this state thanking us for our service in Iraq, when we were in Afghanistan. That’s reprehensible. I don’t know who you two are talking to but the morale of the troops is very high.”

That isn’t support; that’s lip service.

Sen. Durbin compared the military personnel who serve at Gitmo to Pol Pot, Hitler and the KGB who guarded the Soviet gulags. That isn’t support; it’s the epitome of loathing the military.

“On March 19, 2004, President Bush asked, ‘Who would prefer that Saddam’s torture chambers still be open?’” said Sen. Edward Kennedy, (D-MA). “Shamefully, we now learn that Saddam’s torture chambers reopened under new management: U.S. management.”

That isn’t supporting the troops; it’s berating them and hating them.

The truth is that today’s Democrats aren’t much different than Vietnam Era Democrats. They’ve even returned to their ‘glory days’ by spitting on soldiers. The only thing missing from their counterculture days is calling soldiers baby killers.

There were a few tense moments, however, including an encounter involving Joshua Sparling, 25, who was on crutches and who said he was a corporal with the 82nd Airborne Division and lost his right leg below the knee in Ramadi, Iraq. Mr. Sparling spoke at a smaller rally held earlier in the day at the United States Navy Memorial, and voiced his support for the administration’s policies in Iraq.

Later, as antiwar protesters passed where he and his group were standing, words were exchanged and one of the antiwar protesters spit at the ground near Mr. Sparling; he spit back.

Democrats need to get some integrity. Democrats desperately need a patriotism transplant ASAP. Democrats need to stop thinking of the American military as a loathsome bunch. In short, they need to stop acting like Jane Fonda, John Kerry and Bill Clinton. They need to stop acting like post-JFK Democrats.